Sunset Rising
by CodeLyoko
Summary: At the end of the twelfth dynasty in Egypt, one brave pharoah called Xemnas is trying to hold together a revolting, collapsing kingdom. He soon meets the snakecharmer Saix when the priest Zexion and his apprentice Demyx get ambushed. Zemyx and XemSaix
1. Chapter 1

Kira: Hey, I had already posted this on DeviantArt, and the co-author of this, Zipper, aka PenNameIsZipper, should also be thanked for making this story possible. It was inspired when going to the Egypt section of Busch Gardens and Montu. It's quite funny that a random discussion and crack idea turned into this. And here's Zipper!

Zipper: ... Um... -looks around- ... Hi? -sweatdrops- If you find a error, don't hesitate to tell us.

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"Demyx, if you don't stop fidgeting then we will not continue to the marketplace." A stern voice said. Steel blue eyes stared slightly upwards at the slightly pale blonde youth before him, boring into sea blue ones. The shorter one crossed his arms over his chest, chrome blue bangs falling over his right eye. The young man looked to be about twenty years of age, clothed in a white loincloth that reached his calves with a slightly loose sleeveless shirt, beige sandals covering his feet. He was slightly pale-skinned, the reason being that he hardly ever went out of the palace. The most noticeable thing, besides his hair and eyes, was the golden cobra necklace around his neck.

The person he was talking to had blonde spiked hair, almost like a mohawk and a mullet, but was very messy. He, looking about seventeen or so, wore beige sandals as well, but instead of a loose sleeveless shirt, wore a slightly tighter one. His loincloth reached his calves as well, but was slightly tattered, much to the lilac-haired man's dislike. Even though he stood around five foot five, the shorter one, standing at five foot two, had a tone that was so intimidating that he made up for his short size.

The taller one, Demyx, squirmed again, fidgeting with his fingers tugging at his loincloth before stopping, though he twitched every so often, looking down at his feet. He actually couldn't help it, seeing as the illusions that the young priest and advisor summoned up were very uncomfortable.

"But Zeeeeeeeexxxxxxyyyyy!" Demyx whined, his innocent eyes pleading, "Your illusions are really irritating and uncomfortable! And besides, Xemnas would get very mad." He said, fidgeting again, despite the half glare from his mentor and friend. Obviously the pleading eyes never worked on the almost emotionless man.

"For Ra's sake, stop with that pointless nickname Demyx. Either you deal with the illusions or we won't go." Zexion warned, narrowing his eyes. The apprentice sighed and nodded an okay, which caused the glare to soften almost immediately. He knew that Demyx wanted to go anyway, and with a lot of progress from the young teen, he thought that he could reward him by taking him to the marketplace, seeing as he had never been there before.

He briefly closed his eyes, forming the simple images into his head, opening them a second later. Their figures blurred slightly as two separate illusions settled over them. Even though the heights were the same, Demyx looked a bit younger while Zexion himself looked the same. Zexion's illusioned self had dark chocolate brown eyes and short black hair, without any bangs in his eyes. He wore nothing but a loincloth without any sandals, with skin slightly tanned.

Demyx on the other hand had shoulder-length black hair with beautiful dark green eyes. His pale skin was considerably darker, as though it had actually been touched by the burning sun. His clothes were slightly identical to Zexion's. The younger one blinked, looking down at his hands, already used to seeing his own skin combined with illusion's image. Zexion stepped from out of the hidden corridor, having traveled down it to avoid getting caught and questioned by the guards that infested the palace.

Sunlight hit their faces as they stepped out of a well placed hidden door. They made their way through the alleyway, joining the bustling crowds of the day. It was midday, the heat coming down but not as much as in the afternoon. Demyx was staring wide-eyed at everything, the shops, the people, all the stalls set up on the roads. Zexion felt the edges of his mouth twitch up slightly, almost to form the tiniest smile, but his lips returned to their normal slight frown.

"Don't act too childish, Demyx, we don't want to bring attention to ourselves." Zexion murmured, chiding the young male. Demyx sweat dropped, but stayed close to Zexion, his young cute nature still showing through, which just made him ever so adorable, though the illusionist constantly tried to ignore that fact. The sounds of outraged shouts reached their ears, causing the easily startled Demyx to nearly jump, eyes wide. Zexion inwardly growled to himself, but headed towards the source, located on one side of the street where a crowd had formed. The source was two arguing men, one standing, which was the one who was yelling the loudest, obviously pissed about something. The other man was sitting, a wicker basket with a snake in it set in front of him. The illusionist pushed to the front of the crowd to see the two men, his apprentice following closely, looking very nervous.

"You're a pure tyrant!" the standing man yelled. "How can you sleep at night, doing that to your snake?" he asked, as he ran a gentle finger over the messy, infected looking stitches along the other snake's jaw with a sad expression on his face. His two snakes, which were curled up around his arms, hissed softly

"I am not a tyrant, are those new? If you want, I'll stitch them up for you…" the sitting man said to the standing man, he was at least 200 pounds heavier than the one standing, which looked like he had never had a good meal in his life.

The tall ocean bluer haired man's yellow eyes went into the nastiest death glare Zexion and Demyx had ever seen. "They are not new; I've had them for two years… I would never let anything like that be done to my children!" the standing man hissed, almost snake-like to the other.

"Well, at least mine have never bitten me..." the chubby man exclaimed, "You are a fool for not getting it done..." the man continued as he slightly struggled to get up to face the younger man who was a foot taller and shaking with furry.

The beautiful grey and black two foot Carpet Viper, which was curled up on the angry man, uncurled off his arm and slid down his back and leg, and ended up crawling up Demyx's leg and back wrapping itself around his neck, resting its head on its thick body. It hissed, sounding almost friendly, making Demyx whimper softly. Zexion briefly recalled that the young water wielder was deathly afraid of snakes. Several people in the crowd drew back instantly, staring at the viper with fear. If there was one thing that one should know about snakes, it was that they could sense fear. He let out a silent sigh, not backing away, but whispered calming things to the frightened apprentice.

The blue haired man had given up trying to talk some sense into the other man and walked away in a rage, his mind too clouded by his anger, forgetting about his beloved viper. Zexion looked at the man who had sat down once more with a great thud on the ground.

"How would you feel if someone stitched your mouth shut, only removing the badly done stitches so you can eat?" Zexion said in a dangerous tone as he motioned Demyx to follow him in the direction the pissed off man had gone. The man's face flushed in anger at the tone, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, the two were out of sight. They soon found the man in an alleyway, hands clenched as he muttered things under his breath.

"My name… is Z'har." the priest said, approaching the more than slightly angered man, careful not to make the man even more angry than he already was. Z'har…. Yes the name that he always used outside the palace, deprived from his deceased father Ienzo's full name - Z'harenzo. There was something that interested him, the blue-haired man's scent was strange, and he had this tense aura around him, dangerous even.

"What is your name?" he asked, boldly out stretching his hand to give him a hand shake, which the man returned, though quite hesitantly, seeing as he hardly ever talked to anyone.

"Mine is…. Saix…Who is that?" Saix said, pointing to the teen that had gone as white as his normal self with Saix's snake around his neck.

"That is Demyx." replied Zexion, his tone bordering on amusement, turning his head just slightly to the right to observe his apprentice, satisfied that he hadn't totally burst out screaming or something.

"Hey Demyx…Come over here and I'll get her off of you!" Saix called out to the almost in panic mode teen. Demyx walked over, looking pale and extremely scared. Saix sighed and tapped his foot on the ground six times. The snake hissed at Demyx once more, showing him her white almost transparent fangs, which caused Demyx to squeak loudly. The snake uncoiled itself from Demyx's neck and slithered down his back and right leg.

"Terribly sorry about that." Saix muttered, bending down to scoop up the viper, kissing its scaly head lightly as Demyx retreated behind Zexion. The said illusionist calmly sent him a warming smile, such a rare occurrence, which instantly made him feel much better, returning an uneasy nervous grin. The illusionist's eyes settled on the other snake, which he immediately recognized as the native Egyptian Cobra, a beautiful one at that.

"It's so rare to see a Carpet Viper around here… May I see your cobra?" he asked. Saix stared, the said cobra hissing, as though it had understood the words, even though it only felt and sensed the vibrations. Zexion didn't feel fazed at all at the hiss, having handled many types of snakes before, most of them venomous. Saix put the carpet viper around his neck and raised an eyebrow at Zexion.

"Are you sure? This one doesn't like strangers... at all…." Saix looked a little worried as Zexion nodded, knowing that his snake has lashed out at others before. Saix not so willingly took the four foot cobra from around his slightly muscular arm, and carefully handed it to Zexion. He smiled and gently held the cobra, looking at it closely, noticing that it appeared to be quite healthy, more so that its owner.

"It's beautiful, where did you get it?" Zexion asked as the cobra curled up around his arm, its famous hood retreating back as its tongue flickered in and out of its mouth, sensing that the illusionist wasn't showing any fear.

"...I found an abandoned snake nest and it was the only one intact. So I cared for and raised it until now." Saix said, looking surprised that his aggressive cobra hadn't lashed out to Zexion, who was tenderly stroking the cobra's head.

"What about the carpet viper? They are really rare around here..." Zexion asked as the carpet viper hissed and slithered down Saix's back, seeing dinner on the ground. The snake charmer narrowed his eyes a bit, wondering exactly why the other man was so interested. He looked slightly down at the viper, watching it stalk a rat.

"I rescued her from another snake charmer….. She was going to have her bottom jaw removed so that she couldn't bite anyone, and I didn't want that to happen. I'm surprised that my cobra hadn't tried to attack you. You must be quite well on handling snakes." Saix observed, his eyes sliding over to the very quiet apprentice, who was staring at the snakes with wide fearful eyes.

"I find snakes fascinating. I even have an Egyptian Cobra of my own. They're beautiful creatures... Demyx, you're going to have to get over your fear of snakes, they can sense it." Zexion mused. Demyx just let out another pathetic whimper, hanging his head slightly. Zexion just couldn't get the annoying thought out of his head, but he had to admit it, Demyx was adorable, even when looking pathetic. He almost felt a smile come to his lips again, but he kept an emotionless face just the same.

Saix looked down as a high pitched squeak of a mouse was heard and smiled as the carpet viper swallowed the mouse whole, unhinging its jaw to make its mouth go wider. It turned and crawled past Saix and back towards Demyx. Saix picked her up when she was at Demyx's feet.

"Sorry again… She usually doesn't do this. She did it to me before I owned her, and when we see good snake charmers…" he said. The snake hissed at Saix for him not letting her make it to her chosen destination.

"She really likes Demyx… Are you sure that he has a really big fear of snakes?" asked Saix slightly amused, as Demyx squeaked in fear of the two foot carpet viper, who now had a fairly big lump under her scales from the rat she had just eaten. Zexion nodded at Saix.

"Ye-" All of the sudden, Zexion screamed in agony as a dagger went through his skin. Who ever had thrown it hadn't aimed it right and it scraped through the two layers of skin over his ribs. Zexion was so startled by the sudden pain that he fell to his knees and unintentionally dropped the illusions over him and Demyx, which revealed what they really looked like. One of his hand clutching his chest, his now blue eyes widened. Saix's eyes went wide in shock and confusion at the sudden change in appearance, but didn't have time for questions.

Three assassins came jumping down from the roof, into the alleyway. Two landed behind Saix and one in front of him. The one who had attacked Zexion, and had thrown the dagger, joined the one in the front of the snake charmer. Saix quickly herded Zexion and Demyx towards the wall behind him and stood in front of them. He placed the carpet viper on Demyx's lap. The cobra hissed, now by Zexion's side, its hood fanned out as he stared at his owner and the assassins.

"Keep her safe." It was all that he said to Demyx as he turned to face the four attackers. He then glanced back at Zexion who was curled up in pain, clothes almost now totally soaked in blood, and a very frightened Demyx, who was holding onto his mentor, arms wrapped around him, disregarding the blood as he whispered to him, pleading him to be alright. Saix somehow knew that the outcome of this brawl would determine if those two would wake up the next day. He turned again to fight for their lives.


	2. Chapter 2

Kira: SO sorry. I should have gotten this up sooner, but I forgot. I don't own any of these characters, only the plotline.

Zipper: Hai, she forgot, and I didn't even notice. Well, enjoy this chapter, it's shorter than the first one sadly.

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Saix looked at the four men; their faces covered by some dark cloth. He snarled, almost inhumanely, at them as they came closer, invading the place that he had been living, the alleyway. The Egyptian cobra hissed and curled its thick four foot body protectively around Zexion and Demyx, slightly curled around Zexion's neck. The Illusionist's eyes were closed, his breathing a bit irregular.

Demyx's deathly fear of snakes had been shoved aside by his fear and concern for his mentor, making him clutch Zexion even tighter, one hand on Zexion's, which was clutching the wound to try to stop the bleeding. The beautiful back and grey carpet viper had slithered away from Demyx, now on the ground by her master's feet, ready to aid him in any way possible, which was some comfort for Saix as the four walked closer to him.

"Why are you here?" the snake charmer hissed, through clenched teeth. He didn't move from where he stood, standing his ground. One of his muscles twitched in his arm. He kept his gaze on the assassin closest to him, although he glanced at the other three men to make sure they didn't strike. The man on Saix's far left then spoke with utter amusement.

"Isn't it obvious? We are here for those two... perhaps you, if you don't cooperate... So it would be best for you and your snakes if you do, otherwise you'll be sliced to bits." the assassin's eyes lighted up, sparkling with malice and hate. Saix heard Demyx whimper at the words about him and his mentor's soon-to-be death. Saix hesitated for a split second and then made up his mind.

"NO! I won't let you kill them. To get to them, you'll have to kill me first!" he said as his eyes narrowed, now looking extremely pissed. The assassin on his far right just let out a harsh laugh, the other three soon following. The snake charmer let out another growl, glaring at them. Emotion had taken over him. The truth was that there was more to him that met the eye, even though he was at an obvious disadvantage seeing that he had just his bare hands and his snakes. The four assassins laughed, not noticing that the snake charmer was barring his teeth at them.

"Whatever you say, fool." one replied, swinging his sword at Saix. The other three assassins stood back, thinking that the snake charmer would be an easy one to take down.

Saix dodged the swinging sword, hissing at the other man, waiting for his arm to get tired. After a few minutes of dodging the assassins' slashes, Saix started to get extremely impatient, so he caught the blade with his hand. Warm blood streamed down Saix's arm. Saix twisted the blade out of the other man's hand and a split second later Saix sliced his throat with it.

The three other assassins stared in disbelief at Saix; he had killed the leader of them. Saix's hand was oozing with blood, but he didn't seem to particularly care. The other three assassins made a quick decision to take Saix down. All three of them closed in on Saix.

Zexion moaned in pain, biting his lip hard to stay conscious. He was loosing blood quickly, which made Demyx even more frantic, trying to stop the bleeding with his own hands. The Egyptian cobra stayed behind to keep the temptation of swiping Zexion and Demyx while the snake charmer was getting attacked to a minimum.

Saix snarled as the assassins surrounded him and took turns stabbing at him. He was getting rather pissed having to block attacks. The carpet viper slithered up on the assassin that was closest to her and wrapped her body around his neck like she did to Demyx earlier. The carpet viper bit the man on the neck after giving a warning hiss to him. One of the other assassins slashed at the carpet viper, barely missing her, the tip of his blade scraped her body. It was enough to make the carpet viper retreat. She was bleeding lightly and had slightly deep cut in her scaly flesh.

"You... will... pay... for ... that…" the snake charmer said in an almost dead silent whisper. The assassin that had slashed at the carpet viper took a step backwards, frightened at what Saix would do.

-----Meanwhile----

"Pharaoh ...The priest and his apprentice are not here in the palace ..." a lowly servant said to a dark silver-haired man who sat upon a golden throne, looking almost bored.

"WHAT?!" Xemnas said, unable to understand why Zexion left, as it was a dangerous time for the both of them. What was he thinking leaving the palace grounds? The servant looked terrified; Xemnas wasn't pretty when he was pissed. It was at that very moment that one of the other servants ran in.

"Pharaoh! Pharaoh!" There was a look of panic on his face. His pale skin looked much paler than it normally was.

"What now?" Xemnas asked, wondering what else could go wrong today. He rubbed his temples. Something told him there was something very wrong indeed, without him being informed at all. The servant shifted uneasily, afraid to break the horrible news.

"I-I found the Royal guardsmen... The head of the guard is... dead, but the rest were critically injured... Someone was trying to get into the palace..." the servant said, flinching as he caught sight of the Pharaoh's face, stony and alarmed.

"I see, I will send out the guards to look for Zexion and Demyx... I hope they are okay..." Xemnas said, now with a worried look plastered on his face. Zexion was his best friend since childhood and couldn't help being afraid of losing him, especially during a troubling time like now.

-----Back to Saix-----

Saix growled in fury. His lovely carpet viper had been slashed, even though it wasn't that bad, she was visibly in pain, he could tell. The assassin was paralyzed in fear, only being a fighter for hire and not that experienced in this sort of thing, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be coming out of this fight alive. He barely even noticed when his other two comrades fled.

"S-Saix..." Demyx whimpered, burying his face in his mentor's shoulder, tears streaming down his cheeks. The enraged snake charmer didn't seem to even acknowledge his name, not taking his eyes off of the assassin, who was backing away fearfully. The apprentice stroked down the now messy and sweat-soaked bangs of his mentor, hoping to the Egyptian Gods that he would be okay.

A deep growl issued from the berserker's throat, his mind suddenly going blank. His pupils dilated rapidly before shrinking down to nothing, the golden hues of his iris' growing bright, almost looking like they were glowing. His eyes stayed narrowed, crouching to the ground ever so slightly in a predator-like stance. His fingernails grew longer, sharper, almost like claws. His pale lips drew back in a snarl, which made the assassin whimper in fear, backing up.

"W-what in Ra's n-name a-are you?" he stuttered in fear. Saix didn't give a hint that he even heard him, couching lower before springing. The assassin screamed as claws ripped into his left arm. He tried to retreat, but four figures stepped into view, about to pass by the alleyway.


End file.
